A Summer Morning In The Trees At Gunstock Mountain

My 19-year-old son and I were taking a breather, having just completed the red course at Gunstock Aerial Treetop Adventure in Gilford, NH. Perched on a platform surrounding the rough hide of a straight and tall oak 50 feet off the forest floor, we had just picked, clambered and swung our way across some 40 or so ropes obstacles like ladders, foot bridges and dangling planks of wood. We had also launched across a half dozen zip lines, including the last of which, a 275-footer that deposited us on this small wood structure high above the ground.

“Here we are again,” I said, looking back over my shoulder into the dense arbor in a hopeless attempt at trying to spot the platform from which we had leaped. It was too far back. Then I looked straight down at the couple who were ahead of us all the way along the course. They had decided to forego the final leg and had just descended a long ladder to solid Earth.

I understood. When you get to this point after having swung, climbed, inched along and crossed swinging logs, high wires, and all manner of “challenges” over the course of an hour and a half or more, you get tired. Or perhaps you’ve expended the stores of “gung-ho” you’ve carried along since learning how to use the safety harness. Or you just want to go get lunch.

“Yep,” said Becket. Never one to mince words. We had been here before, almost a decade earlier when he was a pre-teen stuntman-wannabe and I was a much more limber 50-year-old who barely understood what a muscle cramp was.

Last time, there were four of us, including my wife and our oldest son. Back then, descending after the red course was a group consensus to call it a day arrived at with a little negotiation and a promise of a return trip.

So, here we were, and Becket and I were determined to go on.

Pick Your Adventure

Gunstock has created an all-ages and all-abilities summer playground with a mix-and-match ticketing scheme that means you can put together as many or as few heart-pounding activities as you care to undertake. Becket and I secured zip line and Discover Adventure passes; that gave us access to the Arial Treetop Adventure, Mountain Coaster, Zip Tour, and more (https://www.gunstock.com/off-snow/tickets-passes/). We received a brief but thorough primer on how to use the ropes course harness and received additional instruction in using the ingenious safety rig at the beginning of the course.

Because of its design, a steel “C” clamp with an opening smaller than the safety cable but large enough for the user to manually slide it over flat transitions, there is virtually no point on the course where you aren’t always secured to the cable. Aside from figuring out how to use the clamp when climbing ladders and before each obstacle, the only other limitations are you have to be at least 12 and must be able to reach to 5 feet 11 inches.

While getting all the way through the Aerial TreeTop Adventure takes some stamina and conditioning, the nice thing is you do NOT have to be a fitness freak to have fun here. You can go as far as you want through the challenges — there are ladders down to the ground at the end of each of five courses that become progressively more difficult to complete — and can set your own pace. (I used the excuse of stopping to take pictures a few times as a means of catching my breath.) There is no pressure to keep moving, except maybe from the folks you arrived with.

The Green course is the easiest and has 11 “games” and a 60-foot zip line with platforms from 8 to 13 feet off the forest floor. Then there is the blue course, a few feet higher. It has nine challenges, including a 70-foot zip line. Silver, averaging 20 feet off the deck, becomes somewhat strenuous with a baker’s dozen of ladders, swings, seesaws, and 65-foot and 125-foot zip lines. Then there’s red, 10-feet higher still with 17 challenges, including these annoying swinging rope loops you catch with your feet to cross an open expanse of forest. It has an 80-foot zip line and the long 275 footer we just came across.

Fun for Everyone

A smaller “Explorer” course is designed for children ages six to 11, but for the bigger kids, each course takes you farther up into the canopy. I was thinking about that fact as I watched Becket start the 20-foot climb to the first obstacle of the black course. 

“Time to go,” he said, sliding his safety clamp up the stainless cable as he climbed. I looked back down at the couple watching us continue and the grin on the guy’s face seemed to project a better-you-than-me-pal message before they headed away. Onward.

We climbed to at least 70 feet off the deck and gingerly crossed a gap between trees. The route was a long sequence of vertically dangling smooth logs with foot pegs mounted through their bottoms. I chose to hug each one as I crossed, leaving the C clamp to follow me across.

It was the first of the final 16 “games” that included a “labyrinth” of intersecting planks and cables to cross, various footbridges, suspended rings, a rope swing, and more. Depending on how the ground slopes away between these obstacles, you can find yourself upwards of 100 feet off the ground. One particularly high crossing was a 165 foot long bridge with irregularly spaced planks. There are also three zip lines and a kind of skateboard mounted on a cable that you balance on as you pull yourself across a high gap to the final platform.

The black course tested our balance and a fair amount of upper body strength to say nothing of confidence and stamina. Finally, with lunch and a Zip Tour from the summit still ahead of us, I watched as Becket attached his safety harness to the “auto belay” device mounted securely above our heads. Then he swung out into space and floated down as a series of magnets spinning within the device checked his speed.

After Becket released the attachment, the belay device rewound its long cable back up to me and I clipped in.

“All you need to do is step off,“ came the advice from below where a dozen or so people just getting their primers on the safety gear gathered. I wondered what they were expecting to see. So I stepped off after a brief hesitation and enjoyed a smooth ride back to solid ground.

Mountain Coaster: All Speeds for Most Sizes

Since we had a little time before our appointment to be outfitted with gear for the giant peak-to-base zip line, we wandered over to the mountain coaster for a bit of fast fun. As if expending energy on the ATA courses wasn’t enough, we were curious about the speeds we could achieve on Gunstock’s mountain coaster.

Becket has been a fan of roller coasters since he was big enough to make the cut at Great Adventure, so there was no way we weren’t going to check this out.

The cars, secured to twin, stainless steel rails, take riders uphill on a track through the forest. Eventually, you reach the top and the car is released from the track and gravity takes over. It’s a neat system allowing each rider to control their speed plunging through the forest and swoop, bank, and spin through all manner of turns.

The ride is just long enough at around 4,100 feet to get comfortable letting the brakes go and allowing yourself to feel the g-forces on a few turns reaching up to 25 miles an hour. That doesn’t sound like much, but on a corkscrew turn that completely blurs the greenery surrounding you, it’s plenty for a 6-minute ride to the bottom. If that’s not enough, just go again.

Fun for the Entire Family, Little Tykes, Too

On our way in to grab something to eat at the lodge, we passed all manner of outdoor contrivances for school-age kids to enjoy from a water-balloon fort where teams could attempt to soak one another to a “space bounce” rig where four kids in bungee-cord harnesses could jump and flip to their hearts content. There was also a giant film stunt airbag onto which participants could fall from two different heights. And just before we entered the lodge, we watched a family gop rolling by on rented off-road Segways.

Gunstock also rents paddleboats and personal kayaks for floating on their placid snowmaking pond, conducts mountain-top yoga classes, and offers guided hiking and glam-packing retreats. Just in case you don’t want to leave Fido behind, you can also take a skijoring class with your favorite canine (that teaching your dog to pull YOU around on your XC skis).

Zip Tour: An Adrenaline and Vista-Filled Rush

After lunch in the large lodge and being outfitted with a beefy safety harness and heavy duty trolley, Becket and I got a lesson in using the gear and headed to the Panorama high-speed quad for our ride to the top during a perfectly clear, blue-sky afternoon.

Once at the summit, we followed signs to the first platform and took a few steps to a platform beneath a pair of heavy cables that shoot downhill to the north. A summer worker directed us to stand on marks beneath the cables so he could pull our trolleys out of our small rucksacks and attach them to the wire above. As he attached Becket’s big trolley to the cable, I watched his sequence of steps to hook it on and lock it in place with latches and hefty pins. I memorized the sequence.

Once the technician says you are clear for takeoff, the rider transfers their grip from a short length of rope to the brake handle and pulls down to disengage. Then it’s all up to you. Pull down hard and release all friction, ease up and the brake starts to squeeze the cable and you slow down.

Becket launched, so I pulled down and lurched forward, keeping my eye on the landing 275 feet away, doubting I’d have any chance of catching my son.

The ride was thrilling! And the harness is comfortable enough once you get moving. But it was over before I realized as I zoomed into the landing area watching for the staff member to signal me to begin to brake. Once detached from the line, we walked maybe 50 yards to the base of next station. Becket led and I followed, climbing a circular staircase up a tall tower — fighting vertigo all the way — to the start of the next line.

“Wow! What a view!” exclaimed Becket as I reach the top. We stood on a platform, with the stunning expanse of Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire’s largest, laid out directly to the north. A couple in front of us has just taken off and the sound of their trolleys on the line whined as their speed increased and they soon disappeared from view.

We wait for them to reach the Zip Tour’s mid station more than 3,960 feet ahead of us at the top of the Pistol triple chair at the resort’s easternmost point, but it’s not a long wait. Just long enough to take in the expansive views and consider how to get the most speed (think cannonball) out of the zip.

Becket and I stood in the start gate near the forward edge of the tall platform at least 200 feet up — hands on brake handles — when the station master gave us the green light. Now consider, you can’t really see the end point. I mean, you can estimate where the platform ought to be, across that valley and in those trees somewhere way down yonder, but you’re really just jumping out into space ready to well, practically fly, a full three-quarters of a mile to the next landing and … “yeehah!” Becket’s whoop of joy as I see him escape out ahead of me makes me realize this race is already lost, so I jump after him.

“Whoohoo!” That one was me, releasing an exclamation normally reserved for a handful of times a season when carving high-speed super-G turns in winter. The steel cable sings as I speed to maximum velocity (estimated at around 65 miles an hour), maintaining a cannonball shape as best I can, and the landing platform comes into view. I wait as long as I can before relaxing my grip on the brake, and … just like that I’m standing on another wooden platform with my face frozen in a grin to match Becket’s. He’s already itching to get to the next platform for the final zip.

From the edge of the next launch, you can just see the finish, down between trees, high across the main parking lot, over the snowmaking pond where people are floating in kayaks. This line, just 150-feet shorter than the last, is just as fun, just as fast, and — taking in the entire day — guaranteed to bring out the child in any of us.

By the time I am sailing high above the parking lot at the resort’s base I am a little disappointed it’s all about to end. People look up as I fly over their heads and I think to myself, how could anyone not love this? I ask this question of Becket as we shuck our harnesses, trolleys, and backpacks, and place them in a golf cart at the base of the landing platform.

“That was amazing!” he exclaims. “Think Mom would love it?” I do, and I think we’ll have to come back next time with everyone.